The Pride and Sorrow of Chess. He imagined himself persecuted by his relatives and went into a state of seclusion. He thought his food was poisoned or that someone was out to kill him. He once attacked a person in the street and challenged him to a duel to the death to settle an imagined wrong. He had a fetish with women’s shoes. He had hats and cigars named after him. He was the first sports figure to issue a commercial endorsement when he declared of a watch, “I have examined the contents of this watch and find it to be made of 100 percent genuine machinery.”

When he arrived in Paris to play Anderssen, he was suffering from the flu. His medical treatment consisted of being leeched. He lost four pints of blood and was too weak to leave his hotel bed. So, he played Anderssen from his hotel room and won 7-2. When he returned to New York, he was greeted byLongfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Samuel Morse, and John van Buren, the former President’s son. Van Buren toasted him as ‘The Chess Champion of the World.’ It was the first time that expression had been used.

100 Cubits to the first correct answer.Good luck!

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